Musical Bridges Concert

7023 Cass Street,Omaha NE 68132

23 October, 2021

Description

Join us for a thrilling evening performance featuring an explosive strings ensemble of very talented performers from across the country! This performance will feature five accomplished and talented guest-artists: Gary Levinson (violin), Jennifer Ahn (violin), Michael Klotz (viola), Inbal Segev (cello), and Baya Kakouberi (piano)! Open to the public - tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. This concert is the capstone event of a five-day strings festival for Omaha Conservatory of Music students. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the performers: Gary Levinson is the Senior Principal Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth. Known for his Bel Canto playing style and adroit technique, Mr. Levinson made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in 1991, under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf, coinciding with the completion of his Master’s of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Dorothy DeLay, Glenn Dicterow and Felix Galimir. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Levinson began studying the violin at the age of five with Professor Sergeev at the Leningrad Special Music School. After immigrating to the United States in 1977, he won the top prize at the 1986 Romano Romanini International Violin Competition in Brescia, Italy, as well as becoming the top American Prize winner at the 1987 Jacques Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, France. As a soloist, Mr. Levinson has collaborated with Erich Leinsdorf, Jaap van Zweden, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and many others. Much sought-after as a chamber musician, Mr. Levinson has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Eugenia Zukerman, Lukas Foss, Carter Brey, Joseph Kalichstein and Christopher O’Riley. In March 1998, Mr. Levinson was appointed as the first violinist of the Elysium String Quartet. He led the inaugural season of the Mykonos International Music Festival in August 1998 as well as a gala concert honoring the Elysium String Quartet at the United States Ambassador’s Residence in Athens, Greece and three critically acclaimed recordings. -------------------- Violinist Jennifer Ahn is a performer and educator who shares her knowledge and passion of music across North America. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. Ms. Ahn made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 and made her duo debut at Music Academy of the West as the 2019 Duo Competition Winner. She has also performed at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Heifetz International Institute, and the National Arts Centre in Canada. An avid orchestral musician, she has worked with various conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Daniel Harding, and George Manahan, among many others. She has also served as concertmaster for MSM’s Philharmonia and Chamber Orchestra and was most recently featured as a soloist with the String Orchestra. She joins NYYS as Orchestra Manager starting in 2021. -------------------- Born in 1978 in Rochester, NY, Michael Klotz has established an international reputation as a performer and pedagogue of the viola. Klotz made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17 and has since then appeared as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestra principal worldwide. After a performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with violist Roberto Diaz, the Portland Press-Herald proclaimed, “this concert squelched all viola jokes, now and forever, due to the talents of Diaz and Klotz”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently proclaimed Michael Klotz to be “a superb violist, impressive, with an exceptionally attractive sound,” and the Miami Herald has consistently lauded his “burnished, glowing tone and nuanced presence.” Michael Klotz joined the Amernet String Quartet in 2002 and has toured and recorded commercially with the ensemble throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Colombia, Belgium, and Spain. Klotz has performed at some of New York’s most important venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, MoMA, Bargemusic, and the Kosciuzsko Foundation. His festival appearances have included Seattle, Newport, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Mozaic, Great Lakes, Cervantino, Festival Baltimore, Festival Mozaic,Piccolo Spoleto, Sunflower, Martha’s Vineyard, Skaneateles, Virginia Tech Vocal Arts and Music Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Beverly Hills, Music Mountain, Bowdoin, Madeline Island, and Miami Mainly Mozart. Passionately dedicated to chamber music, Klotz regularly performs with many of today’s most esteemed artists, having appeared as guest violist with the Borromeo, Shanghai and Ying String Quartets, the Manhattan Piano Trio, and has collaborated with artists such as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, Cho-Liang Lin, Andrés Cárdenes, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Vadim Gluzman, Gary Hoffman, Clive Greensmith, Carter Brey, Michael Tree, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, Cynthia Phelps, Paul Neubauer, Roberto Diaz, Joseph Kalichstein, Jon Nakamatsu, Franklin Cohen, and Alexander Fiterstein, as well as with many principal players from major U.S. and European orchestras. -------------------- Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. A co-curator of chamber music at the Baltimore Symphony’s New Music Festival, she co-founded the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, Avner Dorman, Gity Razaz, Dan Visconti and Anna Clyne. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Avie Records, Segev’s 2020 premiere recording of Clyne’s new cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart and being chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020.” The cellist’s discography also includes acclaimed albums of Bach’s Cello Suites (Vox) and Romantic cello works (Avie), while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has thousands of subscribers around the world and more than a million views to date. Segev’s many honors include prizes at the Pablo Casals, Paulo and Washington International Competitions. A native of Israel, at 16 she was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673. -------------------- Dr. Daredjan Baya Kakouberi, pianist, hailed as a “treat to watch and hear”, was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and made her debut at the age of eleven. After graduating from Tbilisi Special School of Music for the Talented and Gifted, she entered the Moscow Conservatory, where she continued her studies on the Master’s and Doctoral levels under the tutelage of professor Sergei Dorenski, and Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist, Vladimir Krainev. Her engagements have included the Strings Music Festival, Steamboat Springs, CO, Nancyphiles Festival in Nancy, France and a solo recital at the request of the San Antonio International Piano Competition. Ms. Kakouberi is an annual artist at the Musical Bridges Around the World series in San Antonio, TX, where she was a key participant in the city’s all-inclusive Brahms and Beethoven Festival. Business Leader magazine selected Ms. Kakouberi for the Woman Extraordinaire award in 2012. This honor exemplifies women who “demonstrated significant business achievement and community involvement” in their given field. In March 2010, Dr. Kakouberi was honored as the recipient of the coveted International Ambassador for Cultural Exchange Award. Awarded by the Russian Winter Festival at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, this award recognizes outstanding achievement in performing and teaching disciplines domestically and abroad. In 2009, Ms. Kakouberi was engaged to tour China a soloist. Due to her much sought after teaching skills, she is also rounding out the cultural event by presenting master classes in the leading conservatories in Mainland China. Omaha Conservatory of Music is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) school that builds a diverse musical community to enrich lives through education and performance. The Conservatory provides individual lessons in violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, guitar, voice, winds, brass, and percussion, as well as conducting, music composition, and theory. Our outstanding artist-faculty challenges and inspires a student body of over 800 students through individual lessons at its facility at 7023 Cass St. in Omaha, and touches the lives of thousands of others through programs such as String Sprouts, SoundWaves and Suzuki Institute summer programs, our Omaha Conservatory Presents concert series, and off-campus classes. Our musical community offers a rich variety of classes, interaction with guest artists, ensemble experiences, educational workshops, solo and group performances, and other unique opportunities in collaboration with arts organizations throughout the region.